Voice of the People, Jun. 28

Success in the classroom

Let's see: The only good teachers are the smart teachers, right ("Teacher prep; For the sake of Illinois students, don't dilute state standards for tomorrow's educators," Editorial, June 21)? I graduated high school in three years, having taken mostly honors classes. I received a score of 33 (out of 36) on my ACT. I attended college, graduated with high honors, completed my student teaching and passed the Illinois state teacher's exam with flying colors (on the first try).

Given the theory of your editorial, I would be a great teacher, correct?

Wrong! I was a terrible teacher. I was smart, I knew every aspect of my subject matter, I just couldn't relate to the students. Thankfully, for them and for me, I understood this and never went into a classroom.

Test scores are the least valid predictor of success in the classroom.

— Susan Furman, Woodridge

Excellent teachers

Teacher competency in the core curriculum of reading, writing, math and science is vital to our public school system. Anything less is unfair to our students. Teachers who enjoy their subject matter will communicate this to their students and can motivate them to higher achievement. Students need teachers who lead them into that precious "aha moment; I see; I've got it now." When that light goes on, the student is now hooked into continuous learning. We need excellent teachers. They will produce excellent learners. Anything less will make a public school education a travesty.

— Lucy Solomon, retired teacher, Glenview

State actuary

Recently Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new law that creates the position of state actuary to provide insight to the General Assembly regarding the complicated calculation of how much taxpayers must pay each year to support public pensions.

The state's largest public pension fund, Teachers' Retirement System, welcomes the addition of this new level of review to our work. An independent double-check that complements the existing reviews will only help increase public confidence in the way pensions are funded in Illinois.

We already have begun discussions with the auditor general's office about how we can assist in carrying out this new responsibility.

This law will complement our long-standing practice of sharing the numbers, estimates, assumptions and calculations used by TRS with the General Assembly's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, which also employs an actuary to review our work.

In addition, we follow state law and share our data annually with the state Department of Insurance for review. TRS follows the guidelines of the Government Accounting Standards Board and regularly has an independent firm conduct an "actuarial audit" of the System's processes. Finally, the auditor general's office has many times requested and reviewed TRS actuarial calculations during its annual audit of the system's finances.

These regular reviews have never uncovered any problem in the development of our actuarial assumptions.

— Dick Ingram, executive director, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois, Springfield

This warfare language indicates the entirely wrong mind-set for what we need.

As a former educational union chief negotiator, it is far, far better to get the sides together to search for solutions that are mutually acceptable. This leads to more trust and more cooperation rather than the present path, which only leads to battle scars.

— Steve Ruis, Chicago

Law school loans

Uncle Sam enables borrowing of virtually unlimited sums to idealistic young people to finance their dream of earning a law degree; most could not otherwise afford exorbitant tuition. This completely distorts the marketplace, resulting in a gigantic surplus of lawyers despite an ever-shrinking demand. Further, the government doesn't distinguish between a law school that charges $10,000 a year and another that commands $50,000, leaving the borrower himself to judge future ability to pay back the loan.

Were the government not to promise, and offer, free-until-later education, parity would arise between legal opportunities and the number of folks available to fill them. Sure, fewer people would attend law school (for lack of ability to pay), but that's exactly the bitter medicine this issue requires.

Over time, law schools (profit centers if ever any existed) would adapt to the dearth of guaranteed federal dollars and adjust their prices accordingly.